WATCH: Marriage Equality a Big Story? Not on Fox News

By Trudy Ring May 17, 2013, 11:20 p.m.

May has been a big month for marriage equality victories, adding Rhode Island, Delaware, and Minnesota to the equality column, but you might not know that if your main source of information is Fox News.

The “fair and balanced” cable channel devoted a total of one minute to the stories, according to an analysis by Equality Matters, a project of the media watchdog group Media Matters for America. CNN had four minutes of coverage, and MSNBC spent nearly 50 minutes reporting on the developments. Fox made only three mentions of the new Rhode Island marriage equality law and didn’t report on the Delaware legislation at all.

Meanwhile, Fox “balanced” its blink-and-you’ll-miss-it coverage of equality victories with distorted stories implying gay people don’t really want marriage rights but instead want to destroy the institution. Among these, Fox host Bill O’Reilly featured a clip of a year-old speech by a little-known Russian activist who said she doesn’t think marriage should exist, with O’Reilly insinuating she speaks for the LGBT rights movement. And the hosts of Fox & Friends decried new gender-neutral language on student financial aid forms, contending they’re somehow a punishment to heterosexual parents. Watch the clips below, and read more here.